Owner of Romsey Hotel disappointed after he was refused permission to install pokies due to negative social impact

UPDATE 3.42pm: THE disappointed owner of a rural hotel says a ruling today probably means the end of new gaming venues in Victoria.

The Romsey Hotel has been refused permission to instal pokies in a landmark VCAT decision.

UPDATE 3.42pm: THE disappointed owner of the Romsey Hotel says a tribunal ruling today probably means the end of new gaming venues in Victoria.

Justice Kevin Bell ruled today that the Romsey Hotel cannot install 30 pokies, in a decision that make it easier for communities fighting to stop gaming machines being introduced in their towns and suburbs.

Hotel owner Jim Hogan said that no venue could pass the new legal test that poker machines should not be detrimental to the wellbeing of a community.

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"It's changed the landscape,'' Mr Hogan said.

"If you can’t get poker machines in a place like Romsey, which is a rapidly growing, wealthy, outer suburban community I can’t see how you can get them anywhere.

"If there is going to be gaming anywhere it should be in a place like Romsey.

“The bar is now so high I couldn't see another suburb or town get gaming. Maybe somewhere like Toorak."

State Gaming Minister Tony Robinson welcomed the tribunal's decision which he said took into account new Government legislation.

"In 2000, we introduced the requirement the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation (VCGR) consider the social and economic impact of new gaming venues on communities," he said.

"This means anyone who wants to run a gaming venue in Victoria must show the Commission there will be no net detriment to the community caused by the venue.

"The Government thinks both the Commission and VCAT should consider the views of the community when determining applications for new gaming venues, as they have done in this matter."

Mr Hogan, who owns two other hotels and is an accountant, said he could not advise any of his clients in the hospitality industry to try to get into the gaming industry.

"The barriers to entry are nigh on insurmountable now,” he said. "It is a major test case. It rewrites the gaming laws.”

Mr Hogan said that virtually no existing gaming venue in Victoria could pass the community test, as laid down by Justice Bell today.

In his judgment, the president of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, said that the negative social impact of poker machines on Romsey outweighed the small economic benefit of the hotel being redeveloped.

He said amended Victorian gambling legislation said that approval for new gaming machine premises could only be given if the net economic and social impact would not be detrimental to the wellbeing of the community.

“Previously, concerned residents did not have a direct say in decisions about gaming machines in their community,” Justice Bell said.

“Yet the impact of gaming machines is most felt by families, households and communities at the local level.”

Macedon Ranges Shire Council fought a five-year battle through VCAT and the Supreme Court against the proposal.

Mr Hogan also owns the award-winning Wallan Hotel, which got pokies two years ago despite a groundswell of community opposition.

He said that a council or local community fighting pokies would only need to conduct a survey showing opposition to the proposal to pass the “wellbeing test”.

Mr Hogan said the decision also goes against the State Government’s stated aim of bringing new players into the gaming industry.

"It's good news for existing gaming venues and bad news for people wanting to get into the industry,” he said.

"I wouldn't have gone down this path if I'd known the goalposts would keep changing.

"Every tribunal or every court has a different interpretation of the rules. It's too grey. One judge's opinion on the test in the act varies markedly to another judge or tribunal member.

"If they want a bit of movement they've got to revisit the test in the (Gaming) Act. It's far to subjective and that's no good for business.''

"People are gambling anyway. We have a TAB in the hotel. If that's not gambling I don't know what is.

"The fact there is no gambling in Romsey doesn't mean no one in Romsey is gambling.”

Cr John Letchford hailed the decision as a landmark that will help other communities opposed to pokies.

“My message to other communities is ‘don’t give up’,” he said on the steps of VCAT.

Cr Letchford revealed that the battle had cost the council $650,000 but he believed it was money well spent.

“It’s taken us five years to get here,” Cr Letchford said. “It was a long struggle and a very difficult one.

“We will be celebrating in Romsey tonight and we will be celebrating in local government.

“The Municipal Association of Victoria and Victorian Local Government Association have been waiting for this decision to be handed down.

“It gives strength to the rest of municipalities across Victoria and Australia. It is a landmark.”

Cr Letchford said giving communities a voice in the pokies debate was long overdue.

“The community expression in our shire against pokies was very strong. The reaction to this decision has already been very positive,” he said.

Cr Letchford said the biggest concern was the social impact of $2.1 million being leeched from the community each year through the pokie machines.

“Pokies are invidious machines. A number of people have them and there are no problems but it’s the problem gambling that worried us.”

The judge said for some communities the impact of gaming machines was positive.

He said the Romsey Hotel was a modest county pub, the only one in the town, a hard-working rural community “where life is neighbourly and family centred”.

“Romsey is not a commercial centre with a robust economy,” Justice Bell said.

“The small businesses rely on local custom. The idea of gaming machines at the hotel represents a major challenge to the way many in the community see themselves and I can understand why.”

The judge said Romsey is not disadvantaged or particularly vulnerable to problem gambling but it was still a consideration.

“All communities, whether disadvantaged or not, are entitled to be concerned about problem gambling because every community has people vulnerable to problem gambling,.

”I have concluded that the adverse consequences of problem gambling for individuals and their families and friends in Romsey represent a negative social impact of approval, although less than would have been the case in a disadvantaged community.”

The judge said that gaming machine expenditure in the shire would be below average if approval was granted.

“But not everything you can count counts and you cannot count everything that counts,” he said.

Local resident and pokies opponent Sue Kirkegard was jubilant.

She said the affect on a small families in the area could have been devastating.

“We listened to the community. We always said to the community ‘what do you think?’. We didn’t say ‘think this’,” Ms Kirkegard said.

“The whole gaming industry in Victoria is going to take a lot of  work still. Everyone who talked to me had a story of when it had gone really bad for somebody they knew.

“It was a wife’s sister or an elderly lady who had lost her house or a man who wanted to kill his wife because she had mortgaged the home. When it goes bad it goes really bad.

“Across Victoria now there’s been  enough experiences in people's lives of those odd times when it’s gone bad. And they’re saying ‘we don’t want it in our street’.”

Click here to read the full text of Justice Bell's judgment